I just can’t seem to resist buying books. Gah. I read a lot this week, though. But I’m not planning on adding anything new to my current reads. The good thing about this self-imposed reading marathon is that I’m making some headway on my TBR. I’m also way ahead of my blogging schedule. At the moment, I’m booked up until the end of January – which is a rarity!

This week, I got one book for review from Simon & Schuster Canada. To be honest, I’m having second thoughts about agreeing to review this book. AFTER by Anna Todd is not a good book. I don’t like the characters and the theme it tackles. Basically, you can let a guy play with your emotions because LOVE. Which is a total bullshit. I know what I like, and I can already tell that I have a very low tolerance for Tessa’s and Hardin’s characterizations. But I’m going to remain hopeful that I can find some redeeming qualities about them. And who knows? Maybe I’ll get addicted to this series? Maybe this book will be the start of a twisted relationship? And maybe, Christian Louboutin will finally invent a pair of six-inch-stiletto heels that feels as comfortable as fuzzy slippers.

READ

WINNERS!

*throws confetti*

$20 Amazon Gift Card was won by Brooke. She responded and I think she’s already collected her winnings.

$20 Amazon Gift Card was won by Glass. She’s collected her winnings as well.

Two books of choice from TBD was won by Pat. She chose Murder in Death’s Door by Elizabeth Rose and Bake, Battle & Roll by Leighann Dobbs.

THE MOTHER LOAD was won by Jessica! She’s already responded, and is probably anxiously waiting for these books. They’ll be on their way come Monday, Jessica. Looking for a box big enough for all these goodies. Eeeeeeep.

Gawd. What a boring week it’s been. I’ve got nothing to share apart from it’s cold. Winter in Winnipeg is brutal. So yeah. Sorry if I’m going to keep mentioning how cold it is. Since no one wants to brave the frigid temps outside, we haven’t been doing much outdoor activities. Which is a good thing because it’s stopping me from going to the bookstore. However, I find myself trolling Amazon a lot. I suck.

Read

Station Eleven. A Constellation of Vital Phenomena. You guise, read these books, stat!

Worth the Risk was predictably awesome. I’ve been dying to read this book since I finished reading Worth the Fall. And holy hannah! Did I ever break the rule on reading books with scantily clad men on the cover this week. Lol.

This week’s commentary:

Are you telling me that if your favourite author tells you that she won’t be able to write the next book to your favourite series because her publisher dropped her, you will not do your damnedest to help her make it happen? Much of the uproar is about Stacey Jay basically holding the future of the second book (which, is not even written yet) over her readers’ heads if they don’t donate. And that she’s asking for money that she hasn’t even earned yet. But isn’t that the purpose of starting a drive on Kickstarter? To fund the production of a certain product for public consumption? Don’t authors get advances on their publishing deals? I don’t work in the industry, but I’m pretty sure it’s basically the same thing.

If Melina Marchetta started a Kickstarter drive to fund her livelihood while she’s writing a book, you damn well should know that I will donate into that shit. Authors need food. Authors need to pay for the bills just so they can sit in their dark corners and write that award-wining novel about gnomes (or unicorns). I haven’t read Princess of Thorns, but I weep for those who loved it and want to read more of it. Stacey Jay may have been pushy, but yo. She did not force your hand. You didn’t want to donate? Fine. But I guess it’s a moot point now, isn’t it?

Happy New Year! How’s the start of your 2015 so far? Well, we’re back in Canada, and freezing doesn’t even come close to describe how cold it is here. Winter is definitely here – a departure from the weather in Florida! I think it went down to -40 with the windchill today. Brrrr. Same old, same old. 🙂

Last year, around this time, I was lamenting about how much I suck because I wasn’t able to do much postings while we were away on Christmas break. Well, this year is a different matter. I’ve been able to keep the momentum going, and was able to visit blogs as well. I find that if I take a hiatus (however long it may be), trying to get back on the saddle again is a difficult thing. So I’m glad that I didn’t slack off this time.

Obviously, my year of staying away from bookstores is not off to a good start. But I can explain.

Three of these books were bought on my last trip to Barnes & Noble in Florida, and the rest are books that I bought with the Christmas gift cards I got from relatives.

2015 LGBT Challenge

Aside from my Goodreads goal to read 150 books this year, I also signed up to the only challenge I’m doing for 2015. Cayce of nijifeels.com is the hostess with the mostest for this awesome challenge. I love this because it’s the best way to highlight some LGBT books that have been sitting neglected on my shelves. So if you’re interested, you can sign up here.

Read:

P.S.A.

My year end purging giveaway is still going on. So when you get the chance, go ahead and enter to win some fantastic books, Amazon gift cards, or a couple of books from TBD. This contest is running until January 15th.

Well, I managed to drag the entire family to Barnes & Noble yesterday and brought back 7 books. I’m sure it wouldn’t be by last trip there. I’ll probably drag them again on Tuesday as that’s when new books are out.

I snagged a signed copy of Sherrilyn Kenyon’s 13th Dark Hunter book and was even more excited to see that it was reduced to half price. Score!

I’m excited about Station Eleven, too. But I have a feeling this is a duplicate copy. I seem to remember ordering it on Amazon, but I can’t recall whether or not I’ve gotten it in the mail just yet. Oh well.

Can you believe there’s only 12 days before Christmas? My God. Where’ve the time gone? I’m freaking out because I’m nowhere near done with my Christmas shopping. Heck, we don’t even have our tree up in my house! Yesterday would’ve been a good day to put a dent on my to-do list, but dear husband had to work. We only have one car, and I’m not at all prepared to use the public transportation in the city. *shudders* Trust me, you wouldn’t either.

Year End Purgeeeeee

I’m going to do a year-end purge. So stay tune for that. I think there’ll be about 20 books including a couple of completed series, and releases in 2014 that I didn’t get to read, didn’t have any interest in them, didn’t-think-I’d-enjoy-but-I-have-them-anyway books to giveaway. This is only for US/Can. BUTTTTTT, don’t despair, International followers, I also have a couple of $20 Amazon gift card (or your choice of 2 books from Book Depo if Amazon doesn’t ship in your neck of the woods) up for grabs.

Read anything good lately?

Wake was a good post-World War I novel. I just wish I’d enjoyed it more. I think it suffered from way too many points of views that the story lost its direction and focus at times.

Confessions: The Paris Mysteries was a good instalment; it drove me nuts, but man, I’d kill for the 4th book. That is, I hope there’s a fourth book. If not, I’ll riot…very quietly….by myself.

It hasn’t been a good reading week, obviously. Wake took most of my week. I have no clue why it’d taken longer than most, considering it’s a slight book.

Anyway, I hope to change that next week.

Are you an Erotica book blogger?

If you are, and you’re looking for a guest reviewer, I might be interested in doing guest reviews from time to time. Let me know!

Not too shabby. Technically, I only added one book to my TBR abyss. However, I did feed my reader some books last weekend as well.

Hardcopy & ARC

The Blonde by Anna Godbersen is the story of a fictional Marilyn Monroe recruited by the KGB to spy on JFK. I’m salivating, though the reviews hasn’t been good for this book.

Simon & Schuster Canada sent me a copy of Andrew Pyper’s February 2015 release, The Damned. This is going to be my first Pyper, so I’m hoping it’ll be great. I’ve always wanted to read his Demonologist, but my mood was never right for it.

E-Books

The Boys of Summer was free. Merry Christmas, Baby was a download from Net Galley. Wild Seasons 1 & 2 were supposedly on sale, but by the time I realize it was only on sale in the US, I’ve already finished both books. I suck.

Read

I had a great week, obviously. I read a lot, but most of the books were purely for enjoyment’s sake.

Obviously, the book buying ban lasted about 43 seconds. This is why any diet and exercise regiment never work out well for me. I can never stick to anything. My lack of self control is famous around these parts of world, yanno?

Do I smell fresh paint?

You know what else I’m known for? Spontaneity (more like, impulsiveness). I’m serious. Last week, as I was trolling Goodreads, I found Carmel of Rabid Reads (awesome blogger extraordinaire)! She mentioned on her profile that she offers web master services to bloggers. So I figure, I’d ask her about it and see how she can help my blog transition to being self-hosted (FINALLY). She was awesome! And patient. We hit a bit of a snag, but hey. I’m finally self hosted! *throws confetti* So yeah, you may notice the blog changed a bit, and this is all thanks to Carmel. I wanted to keep the same design as my former one, and thankfully, Carmel was able to replicate it.

I haven’t had a chance to check out all the cool plugins I can play around with, but I’m looking forward to bedazzling the shizz out of my blog.

Read any good books lately?

Mrs. Poe and Sweet Tooth were unremarkable. The Darkest Minds was inexcusable. When the World was Flat (And We Were in Love) was inexplicable.

I’m down to the last book on my winter reading list. I can’t believe I actually stuck through it. There’s hope for me yet. Ha. I can probably round up some more books that need some lovin’ from their owner, so look forward to another set of five books I’m dying to read before the year is out. What a great way to dust off neglected books on my TBR!

In the next week or so, come back and check out my interview with the husband in a segment that I dubbed At Home with a Book Addict. I hope he’ll agree to let me put up his picture. 🙂

This week, marks the first week ever that I did not fall behind on commenting and blogging. Success! In fact, I’ve managed to post something everyday this week. I’m feeling pretty accomplished with what I’ve been able to write. I think the fact that we had Tuesday off helped. I read some, and wrote some. Please don’t feel like I’m bragging or anything. I’ve never been able to do this in all the years that I’ve been blogging.

My haul this week consists of adult fiction. All of which, I’m looking forward to read. I don’t have much to report, sadly. But I’ve managed to schedule some posts up for next week. I hope you’ll come visit me again. 🙂

Read

All the Light We Cannot See was a fantastic read! As well, Lethal by Sandra Brown. I didn’t have much luck with The Cure for Dreaming, as you can tell from my review which I posted yesterday.

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr | Glory O’Brien’s History of the Future | Travelling to Infinity by Jane Hawking | Colourless Tsukuru Tazaki by Haruki Murakami

This is coming in late. We were busy running around yesterday so I wasn’t able to write this post. It’s Sunday, so it’s a pretty lax day. I’m hoping to catch up on blogging and commenting today.

It’s snowing outside, y’all, and temperatures are supposed to drop to single digits next week. Here it comes…

This week, I managed to curb my new books purchases to four, so I’m pretty happy about that. I went to the bookstore just for the purpose of picking up All the Light We Cannot See, but of course I couldn’t go to the bookstore and come home with just one book!

I don’t know anything about Glory O’Brien’s but I’m excited to read my first A.S. King. As well, my first Murakami. Traveling to Infinity is a memoir written by Stephen Hawking’s formerly estranged wife (now reunited). I’m curious to see what it’s like to be married to such a brilliant man.

Recent Reads:

I’m pretty stoked that I managed to finished six books last week! Actually, make that five. My second DNF of the year was The Bookstore. Gawd. I couldn’t stand the characters! Doormat and an asshole (heroine, hero, respectively). I abandoned it after two chapters. Reviews of these books will be posted sometime next week.

Also, sorry for the poor quality of these pics! Since I upgraded to Yosemite, I apparently have to upgrade my iPhoto as well. Well, downloading it is a pain and a half. Grrrr.

I’ve been thinking about this lately. A couple of weeks ago, someone asked me how long have I been collecting books. I said years and years. Then she said, rather skeptically, “Really? I thought it’s only been going on since you started blogging.” This gave me pause. I’ve been a reader for most of my life. I remember growing up in the Philippines and devouring as many books as I can that was available to me. Back home in the province, you can rent books for five pesos (equivalent to about $0.12 nowadays). That was all I could afford. Needless to say, I had a tiny collection of books. Fast forward to the present, and several bookshelves later, my house is now my personal playground. Even so, this didn’t happen overnight. But is there some truth to my friend’s observation that since I’ve started blogging, I’ve become more prone to book shopping?

Let’s go down the memory lane…

Before I started blogging, I was not a card-carrying member of our bookstore. I read the books I have on hand before even thinking about setting foot to the nearest bookstore. Even then, I didn’t buy new books – always, always, used. One fateful night in 2007, I found myself at Walmart. There, in a clearance bin advertising an additional 30% off the cover price, was a pile of new books that I thought I should check out. The first thing I picked up had these on the blurb:

“About three things I was absolutely positive:

First, Edward was a vampire.

Second, there was a part of him – and I didn’t know how dominant that part might be – that thirsted for my blood.

And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him.”

For the next two years, I was wholly immersed in that fandom. After that, I found The Hunger Games. Then, The Mortal Instruments. Little by little, I kept going back to the bookstore in search of Young Adult books. So much so, that I was there at least three times a week in the hopes that there’ll be a new one that I have yet to own. In 2010, I discovered Goodreads.

I. Found. Books.

I found release dates for books.

I found series. Series!

Not long after that, I found bloggers. Then I became ambitious. I wanted to blog, too. So I did. Which, ultimately, brings me to the reason for the beginning of the end of my already porous self control:

In My Mailbox.

Book hauls, yo. Book hauls.

By the numbers.

My very first In My Mailbox was posted on August 14th, 2011. I posted my 126th book haul post last weekend. Let’s average my hauls to a conservative 8 books per episode. So taking that number, I’ve amassed 1,008 books in the last three years. Tell me this: is there such a thing as an acceptable number of book purchases per week? If I’d been consistently bringing home 10 books every week, does that make me a hoarder? Or someone who is just so incredibly passionate about books? I’m going to go out on a limb here and say, it’s a bit of both. My reasoning is this: the books you take home are yours until you give them up.

In Conclusion.

I guess the real, honest-to-goodness question I need to ask myself is, do I feel the need to visit the bookstore every week just because I have to write a book haul post? I know the answer to this, but I’m in denial. Mostly, I’m a little ashamed to admit that yes, I do feel the need to go to a bookstore because I need to write a weekend post. I am honest enough to admit that. But here’s the thing. It doesn’t even matter what your reasons are for going to the bookstore weekly. All that matters is that you’re keeping the love for the printed word alive.

All that matters is that you’re reading.

My Confession:

I’ve become more susceptible to hoarding ever since I’ve started blogging.

But I regret nothing.

Regardless of when you decide to read them – months, years from now – they’ll be there waiting for you. Remember that a book is wasted when it’s used as kindling. A book loses its magic when you use it to prop a lopsided table. A book dies when it doesn’t serve its purpose. So please, keep your books. Hold on to them. Treasure them. Collect them. Because one of these days, technology will die. But hey, at least you’ve got books to pass the time.